Methods for making tablets and other solid or dry pharmaceutical preparations are well-known. For example in the standard text Chase, et al., Remington's Pharmaceutical Sciences, pp. 1553-1576 (16th ed. 1980, Mack Publ. Co. of Easton, Pa., U.S.A.) ("Remington's"), methods of making tablets, capsules and pills and their respective components are described. Three methods of making tablets include the "wet-granulation", "dry-granulation", and direct compression methods.
Wet-granulation methods involve weighing out ingredients (including a solvent), mixing them, granulating them, screening them damp, drying them, dry screening, lubricating, and compressing the resultant admixture into tablets. See, e.g. Belgian Patent No. 773,064. Such procedures generally result in tablets having adequate tablet homogeneity.
While granules made according to these methods are adequate for many medicinal agents, they are not altogether adequate for use with certain medicinal agents and applications (e.g. for making tablets containing low doses of very potent steroids).